“To say that I would use the gay community to sell records is probably one of the most ridiculous statements anyone can make about me as a person. I would say the top thing I think about every single day of my life, other than my fans, loving the music, and my family being healthy, is social justice and equality…Anyone who says that I’m not genuine is not interested in overcoming this fight.”

When asked if she considers herself an ally or part of the LGBT community, she says she ascribes “to the b letter.” On the difference between speaking at The National Equality March and performing in the Monster Ball Tour:

“As much as I love the fantasy of the Monster Ball, it is a fantasy; it’s a place to escape to. Whereas when I’m working as a political activist, we’re rooted in reality. We’re rooted in the reality of the fight.”

“Lady Gaga is not just a shameless self-promotin’, self-important, media-manipulatin’, Messiah-soundin’, outsider-liberatin’ pop music machine… no, no, no, Lady Gaga is a gay activist at heart… If you don’t like Lady Gaga then you are against gay rights, social justice, sparkler bras and for the killing of gay unicorns everywhere.”

GLEE:

Have you heard the one about the little Brittana peck that sent a million fangirls into a tizzy over the weekend? In honor of the last show of the Glee live tour in Dublin, they threw together a short skit, during which Brittany mistakes Blaine of being straight and is left alone without anyone to kiss (they put as much effort into that storyline as on the show, I see). Santana then jumps on stage to surprise her crush with a sweet kiss and the crowd collectively lost their ever-loving shit. See also: Kurt & Blaine kiss.

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7rciJ0pfU’]

K.STEW:

Girlfriend is jumping from one iconic role to the next by signing on for a new trilogy: Snow White and the Huntsman. Interestingly, rather than the competing film starring Julia Roberts, this film is getting the Lord of the Rings treatment and going for an epic three-film series.

Sayeth IMDB:

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) ordered to take Snow White (KStew) into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen (Charlize Theron).

Producer Joe Roth on why KStew was cast as Snow White: “I hope this is a movie that will appeal to those who find Twilight appealing, but also she is someone who has some piss and vinegar in her.”

PORTIA DE ROSSI:

VegNews (not to be confused with Vag Magazine) exists… and Portia de Rossi is the July/August 2011 covergirl. Interestingly, she never spoke about being vegan during her book tour last fall and explains that she didn’t want people to see going vegan as further manifestation of an eating disorder. She also discusses how she finds being vegan more difficult than being gay:

“Listen, I think it’s more difficult to be vegan than gay. I think people have a harder time accepting it; people feel more uncomfortable with a vegan at their dinner table than they do a lesbian. It’s confronting. It’s kind of suggesting that what someone else is doing is bad or wrong, and it hits them on a more personal level. … If somebody is setting there eating a steak watching you eat polenta, they’re thinking that you’re trying to preach to them or you’re trying to convert them in some way. Whereas with being gay, I don’t think anyone’s concerned that that’s the agenda. “Hey, Mom, you also have to be gay. I’m gay and so should you be!” Certainly when I told her that I was vegan, it forced her to look at her habits.”

Jess is a pop culture junkie living in New York City. She enjoys endless debates about The L Word, Howard Stern, new techy gadgets, DVR, exploring the labyrinth of the Lesbian Internet, memoirs, working out, sushi, making lists, artsy things, anything Lady Gaga touches, traveling, puppies, and nyc in the fall. Find her on Twitter @jessxnyc or via email.

I am actually quite pleased that people think that the gay community is big/important enough to be pandered to, especially by a big star like Gaga.

I don’t understand why people are so upset that Gaga is “using” the gay community to sell records. She’s a part of the community, her queerness is a part of herself. It’s like calling out a black rapper for pandering to blacks.

Furthermore, she is actively championing gay causes and well, if she gets herself a little extra publicity as a result, who are we to deny her that? It doesn’t hurt us, and she’s certainly gotten us a lot of extra (mostly positive) attention from people that otherwise wouldn’t care much about gay issues.

I agree with this – it seems that when a famous person becomes an activist in a certain field, suddenly it’s for record sales and nothing else. Suddenly, when famous, you become bigger than every cause, every fight, everything and anything you do is merely to better yourself and get ahead. As a person, I think Lady Gaga is a sweet woman and I feel she is genuine in her want to help others. You have to look past the crowds of people preaching it’s just a sells gimmick. What entitles them to decide her motivations for her?

There are plenty of less controversial topics and communities you can pick to sell records to. I also feel she enjoys her music and her message, she’s not just shouting ‘born this way’ so it can catch on and we buy everything with the phrase on it. If you love something, fight for it. She’s always going to be called out for dating a man but loving the gay community. Apparently, you can’t support something unless you are that something anymore. Even if I wasn’t gay, her message of love is something I can respect, and would buy her record anyways. She’s not selling to ‘gays’, or gay supporters. She is selling to people whom believe and agree with a message that preaches that judging others based on ANYTHING – yes, sexuality included – about that person, is wrong and unfair. Love them for them, not the little things you get to pick and choose to like and hate. The want to not be judged is akin to more than just our community.

This is just like people claiming that the ‘it gets better’ people are just doing the videos for publicity and money. It’s a heartless thing to say – no matter the amount of money you get, you can’t buy honesty, sincerity, or change someones opinion – at the end of the day, they love what they love.

On a side note, what’s the big deal about selling to the gays anyways? We like the message, we like her. Plenty of other people do too, we just feel closer to the message. I don’t know about you, but I agree with a lot of songs with points not made about the gay community, but they fit us anyways.

I listen to music I like – I buy music I like. I don’t automatically buy something or listen to it, and suffer through off key notes or screechy voices just because the message is for gay rights.

I love her music, she loves to make her music. Where’s the harm in that?

I think Queerty is setting up a false dichotomy. No one is saying that all queers have to LOVE Lady Gaga, but I don’t think being a huge fan is required to respect that her passion for the issue is genuine. For starters, she’s gone much further than other stars in expressing her support – not just donating to GLAAD or making an It Gets Better video, but actually calling her legislators to repeal DADT and showing others how to, and speaking at the National Equality March.

Also, she’s the last person I’d expect to be faking the bi thing. As a bi person I generally don’t like how people always second-guess famous bisexuals, but Lady Gaga in particular doesn’t seem to give one shit about straight male titillation. She’s clearly not Katy Perry or Ke$ha. I don’t see why anyone is discussing this.

Yeah, I hear you especially on the second point. She seems pretty authentic and it irks me that people often pass over the fact that she herself is bi, mostly because she’s a big name star who has never been seen to date a woman publicly. Does she need to release a long form gay certificate to show people that she’s actually bi?

Additionally, does she even need to be LGBT to speak out for queer issues? Does being gay automatically qualify you to speak for queer issues (see: Ramin Setoodeh)? Shouldn’t being a reasonable, compassionate human being be enough qualification to advocate for a group of people that have been historically oppressed?

Yeah, I’m fed up with people ignoring her bisexuality and/or claiming she’s a phony because she’s with a guy. Umm, hello people, bisexuality implies attraction to both sexes. Why do all the bisexuals have to be with women to be taken seriously?

(My friend didn’t believe me when I said Anna Paquin’s bi because Anna’s married to a guy. I then pointed to myself as my counterargument and she shut up.)

Agree with you there. “Outsider-liberatin'” Queerty says? Since when are bisexuals outsiders? Sometimes people are attracted to the same and opposite sex. Sometimes they date the first one. Sometimes they date the second one. Sometimes they sit at home and watch Buffy. This doesn’t make them more/less queer.

Also, is she dating someone? I don’t know because Gaga hasn’t blasted it all over every media outlet she can (y’know, because she just HAS TO PROVE her sexuality). Bad panderer.

yeah, totally. i have some issues with the way that she puts things sometimes and with all the essentialism and so on and so forth — but frankly in general i think it’s pretty cool to have someone at a really ubiquitous mainstream level saying over the top fawning things about gay rights, even if i don’t totally agree 100% all of the time.

I would agree that it’s harder to be gay, as well. I can understand her perspective that in her position, it might be more difficult to be vegan, given that everyone agrees veganism is a choice, and most of the people she is surrounded by know that being gay isn’t.

Also, just have to say–our lives really do revolve around food and sex. hahaha!

Obv I am not Portia and can’t speak for her but I kind of assumed she was making a little bit of a joke with that statement. She has talked and written openly about how difficult it was for her coming to terms with her sexuality and how scary it was to come out to others and she is married to that Ellen Degeneres person so I don’t think she seriously believes it’s harder to be vegan than it is to be gay. I thought she was just making a funny (and true) comment about the way people generally react to veganism.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, though. There’s a saying going around the Peace Corps Philippines community that it’s easier to be gay here than it is to be vegetarian. All I can think is that I really WISH I lived in that world.

I can see it being harder for Portia de Rossi to be vegan than gay in her particular life and social circle, but I hope that she didn’t mean that as a sweeping statement about being vegan and being gay in the world in general. It makes me really happy that she and Ellen are vegan, though!

i’ve come out to more people as being gay than being (near) vegan. the most i heard about being gay was “oh i wasn’t expecting that!” but when im at a bbq/restaurant/or myowndamnkitchen eating something without meat it seems like pandemonium is let loose.

i’ve gotten “what the hell is wrong with you?!!”,
“are you on a diet? you don’t really need it”, “you have an eating disorder!”, “freak!”……….yeah i’ve gotten freak for being vegetarian but not for being gay, so maybe the world is changing.

I was a vegetarian for four years, and when I first became a vegetarian telling my parents that I wasn’t going to eat meat anymore was definitely like coming out. I was all scared that my parents weren’t going to understand, and that they were going to be really mad, and all of the fun typical coming out woes, but when I did tell my mom she just thought I was stupid. I haven’t told her I’m gay yet, but when I do I’m pretty sure I’ll just get the same reaction. Lot’s of dismissive noises and eye rolling. Bring it on, Mom!

Ha, same experience, almost! Although I edged gradually enough into vegetarianism (progressing from no red meat as a 10- or 11-year-old to no meat at all by the time I was 12 or 13) that my mom wasn’t too annoyed, for some reason I could barely bring myself to tell her when I decided to go vegan. I remember we were standing in the kitchen one evening talking about what to have for dinner and I just kind of kept mumbling, “Uh . . . I don’t want that.” When I finally came out with it, she was pretty annoyed, but has since embraced it. In any event, it was certainly a bigger deal than my coming out as gay some years later.

Hahaha nice. I was vegan for a whole month. My mom was not having that mess at all so I just gave up. She wanted to order pizza for dinner or something and I was just like “uhhhh I don’t want thatttt….” and she got so mad at me that it was no longer worth it. (Plus dairy is awesome!) I’m pretty sure she’s just not even going to begin to understand the gay thing and I’m not ready to tackle that one yet, especially since I don’t live with her anymore… I don’t know. One day it’ll be tackled. One day.

I don’t like Gaga’s music. I don’t know her as a person, although I’ve found some of her actions while in her entertainment persona to be strange… and I don’t believe she’s just using her activism as a sales tool. Especially given that being/supporting gay rights usually leads to a reduction in sales… But its possible to not like a person/their music and still appreciate what they do for a community.

But you know what? Even if she was… who cares? She’s probably doing far more to fight for equality than anyone who is a part of this “backlash,” just because of her popularity. The end result is more important than the why, in my opinion anyways.

LOL, being vegan is harder than being gay? Really? Haha. Though in her position, both being gay and being vegan are probably extremely easy. It’s possibly hard to differentiate for her :P

I think the real rub is that if my mom thinks my vegetarianism/veganism is stupid, it’s not something I’m going to cry myself to sleep over. If she thinks the people I love/the girl I wanna marry/etc. are “stupid”, I’m more than a little bit offended. Predictably, however, she has no problem with anyone being a vegetarian, but the whole gay thing is a rather touchy subject! Which is generally how it works, I think :P I’ve never seen a protester screaming about the vegetarian agenda or heard a priest tell me I was going to Hell for eating tempeh.

You have a good point about what the difference means to you. But I’m not sure it’s fair to say that it’s easy for her to be gay–I read her autobiography and it sounds like her coming out process was pretty painful.

It might be easy now but she still has the perspective and experience of someone who had a very rough time with her sexual orientation.

I think it’s the “at their dinner table” part that is important. From the perspective of someone with food allergies, even, people are very, very protective of the way they cook, and sometimes don’t like to be asked what is in things or make a serious effort to feed you safely.

Or they space out, like my aunt who tried to feed me something with a sauce that included both wheat and pineapple, and I am crazy allergic to both, but that was off subject. And I know veganism and food allergies are not the same thing–my sister often says “I can’t eat that” (being vegan) and then thinks about me, and clarifies “I CHOOSE not to eat that.”

So it both requires serious effort on their part to feed you, but even if they’re at a restaurant, there’s still the aspect that some omnivores feel judged while eating with a vegan.

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